Small Batches

Hydraman · 10-15-2008, 03:48 AM

I would like to start brewing some "experimental" small 1 gallon, all grain, batches but seem to be having a little difficulty. What calculations do I use to scale down my grain bill? How much water should I use? Should I pitch the same amount of yeast as a 5 gallon batch? If not, how much?

I've been searching the web for answers but seem to be coming up short. What I have found has been for extract batches, which unfortunately doesn't tell me anything about figuring out my grain bill.

Has any one else had this problem? Will someone please point me in the right direction?

Thanks for all the help!

TerapinChef · 10-15-2008, 04:38 AM

Depending upon what you are looking to experament with, you might consider making a 5 gallon batch and splitting it into 5 different 1G fermenters. This would allow you to play with different yeasts, oaking, dry hopping, fermentation temperatures...the list is endless. I've tried doing the 1G batch on the stove all grain, and it wasn't good...

lustreking · 10-15-2008, 11:32 AM

I've done quite a few 1 gallon AG batches and haven't had any trouble. One of the most important things is to be very accurate with your measurements, especially if you are using high alpha acid hops for bittering.
Stovetop All Grain Small Batch Brewing - Lustreking Brewing

I just use promash to scale my big recipe down to a 1 gallon sized batch, and you could use Jamil's pitching rate calculator to figure out how much yeast you need.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

-Steve

Hydraman · 10-15-2008, 12:59 PM

Thanks for the link. That has some great information in it. You said that you are using Promash to scale your recipe back, do you know if Beer Smith will do the same thing?

lustreking · 10-15-2008, 01:20 PM

I've never used it, but I'm sure that it does.

TerapinChef · 10-15-2008, 02:22 PM

Perhaps I should expand on "it wasn't good" The beer itself was fine, but I missed my target gravity, target volume, target bittering....pretty much everything that I was going for. Although I guess if you had a mini-mash setup already you could probably do this with no problem, I prefer to just experament with 5G batches. It's never hard to get rid of one that you don't like...except that Vanilla Caramel Cream Ale.

**Revvy** · 10-15-2008, 02:26 PM

If you are interested in doing 1 gallon beer batches...you should check out the basic brewing podcasts...they cover "six pack brewing" both on the audio and the video side of their website...

Here's a shor vid of them doing a small batch porter.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbv11-29-06.mov

Go through their website and you will see the podcasts devoted to that subject.

Basic Brewingâ„¢ : Home Brewing Beer Podcast and DVD - Basic Brewing Radioâ„¢

Have fun....

BuffaloSabresBrewer · 10-15-2008, 03:02 PM

I would go with he brewing a full batch and then experimenting from there. Then you can play with yeast and the such. Smaller batches are about as much work as a full batch and take as much time. I brewed a smaller batch once...once.

lustreking · 10-15-2008, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuffaloSabresBrewer

Smaller batches are about as much work as a full batch and take as much time.

I don't find that to be true at all using my method.

**jezter6** · 10-15-2008, 03:22 PM

where does one find inexpensive fermenters for this?

I looked at northernbrewer and they wanted like $23 of a 3g carboy...too much if I want to get maybe 3 of these to do some test batches.